


Epilogue

by Meelah



Series: Ghost Stories [8]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 12:12:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6374296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meelah/pseuds/Meelah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Epilogue to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/5396090">Call it Magic</a>, and end of Ash's story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Epilogue

**Author's Note:**

> (There's an obscure nerdy reference here somewhere, let me know if you catch it.)

"Mistakes can be corrected. There is a place for you."

The woman standing before Ash says it calmly, without emotion. Yet they had once been friends, she had been Ash’s partner for years on Seheron while they had hunted the Tal-Vashoth. Ash had called her Aadrika after the mountains and they had fiercely believed in what they were doing.

“It wasn’t a mistake. _I_ am not a mistake,” Ash says. “Individuality is not evil.”

“You have rejected your role and place in the world,” Aadrika says, her face still impassive but Ash remembers what she looked like when she laughed.

“I reject the Qun,” Ash says, pressing her palms against the table and she feels shivers running down her spine. 

How many times had she heard that coming out of mouths of crazed Tal-Vashoth, brought on their knees before her. How they held their heads high as they stared at her, spitting on her face as she decided their fates. _This one we can save_ she would sometimes say, and then remoulded the savages into faithful followers of the Qun once again before sending them back into the frontline to fight. But more often than that it had been _this one will make a fine worker_ and watching the tamassrans douse the beasts in qamek until they were mindless drones to her queen bee. Those men and women were sent off to work on the fields, for the Qun wastes nothing.

Aadrika finally shows some emotion at Ash's words, her lips quivering before she pulls them into a tight line. 

“I know you,” Aadrika says in a low voice, leaning towards Ash. “I know this isn’t you, this is the _bas_ corrupting you. You are a Qunari. You love order.”

“ _Order is an illusion_ ,” Ash says, looking at her and wonders how crazy she must look to her now. “It can never be maintained, and struggle to maintain it is futile.” 

“No!” Aadrika hisses, her hand tightening to a fist as she fights to bring her voice under control. “ _Struggle_ is an illusion. The tide rises, the tide falls, but the sea is changeless. There is nothing to struggle against. Victory is in the Qun.”

“I submit to you that the Qun is illogical because it cannot endure!” Ash says raising her voice, her eyes locked into Aadrika’s. “I submit that _you_ are illogical to be a willing part of it!”

Aadrika takes a step back, almost a stumble, and her face has turned as still as stone.

“This one—” Aadrika says and her breath comes in sharp gasps, her eyes glisten with the tears she’s holding back. “—will make a fine worker.”

Tamassrans bring in the qamek. 

Ash screams.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay okay, one more. [16 years later](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6396700).


End file.
